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<h1><a name="SECTION0091500000000000000000">
7.15 <tt class="module">uu</tt> --
         Encode and decode uuencode files</a>
</h1>

<p>
<a name="module-uu"></a>

<p>
This module encodes and decodes files in uuencode format, allowing
arbitrary binary data to be transferred over ASCII-only connections.
Wherever a file argument is expected, the methods accept a file-like
object.  For backwards compatibility, a string containing a pathname
is also accepted, and the corresponding file will be opened for
reading and writing; the pathname <code>'-'</code> is understood to mean the
standard input or output.  However, this interface is deprecated; it's
better for the caller to open the file itself, and be sure that, when
required, the mode is <code>'rb'</code> or <code>'wb'</code> on Windows.

<p>
This code was contributed by Lance Ellinghouse, and modified by Jack
Jansen.
<a id='l2h-1648' xml:id='l2h-1648'></a>

<p>
The <tt class="module">uu</tt> module defines the following functions:

<p>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-1645' xml:id='l2h-1645' class="function">encode</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>in_file, out_file</var><big>[</big><var>, name</var><big>[</big><var>, mode</var><big>]</big><var></var><big>]</big><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
  Uuencode file <var>in_file</var> into file <var>out_file</var>.  The uuencoded
  file will have the header specifying <var>name</var> and <var>mode</var> as
  the defaults for the results of decoding the file. The default
  defaults are taken from <var>in_file</var>, or <code>'-'</code> and <code>0666</code>
  respectively.
</dl>

<p>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-1646' xml:id='l2h-1646' class="function">decode</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>in_file</var><big>[</big><var>, out_file</var><big>[</big><var>, mode</var><big>[</big><var>, quiet</var><big>]</big><var></var><big>]</big><var></var><big>]</big><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
  This call decodes uuencoded file <var>in_file</var> placing the result on
  file <var>out_file</var>. If <var>out_file</var> is a pathname, <var>mode</var> is
  used to set the permission bits if the file must be
  created. Defaults for <var>out_file</var> and <var>mode</var> are taken from
  the uuencode header.  However, if the file specified in the header
  already exists, a <tt class="exception">uu.Error</tt> is raised.

<p>
<tt class="function">decode()</tt> may print a warning to standard error if the
  input was produced by an incorrect uuencoder and Python could
  recover from that error.  Setting <var>quiet</var> to a true value
  silences this warning.
</dl>

<p>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><span class="typelabel">exception</span>&nbsp;<tt id='l2h-1647' xml:id='l2h-1647' class="exception">Error</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
  Subclass of <tt class="exception">Exception</tt>, this can be raised by
  <tt class="function">uu.decode()</tt> under various situations, such as described
  above, but also including a badly formatted header, or truncated
  input file.
</dl>

<p>
<div class="seealso">
  <p class="heading">See Also:</p>

  <dl compact="compact" class="seemodule">
    <dt>Module <b><tt class="module"><a href="module-binascii.html">binascii</a></tt>:</b>
    <dd>Support module containing ASCII-to-binary
                       and binary-to-ASCII conversions.
  </dl>
</div>

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